In San José and all across the United States, marches for immigrant and workers' rights are reviving the long-dormant American tradition of May Day. While legislation for comprehensive immigration reform has stalled in Congress, demonstrators are poised to take the struggle to the next level.

For the third year in a row, immigrant workers and their families went into the streets to march on May Day. From coast to coast, over a hundred thousand marched on May 1, 2008 to demand respect and recognition as workers who contribute so much to building the United States. The largest demonstration was reportedly in Chicago where some 15,000 people participated.

Their numbers were much smaller than two years ago on May 1, 2006 when millions marched against the threat of being criminalized by the Sensenbrenner Bill (H.R. 4437). That unprecedented outpouring of protest ensured that the bill would die in the Senate, but it also unleashed a wave of immigration raids by the Bush administration that has kept millions of undocumented immigrants and their children living in fear of forceful separation and deportation. Read More and View Photos

A community march and rally took place in San Jose on March 8th to ask for mercy for Joshua Herrera, who faces 25 years-to-life for a first-time offense. Report and Photos His family believes that such a sentence would be far too harsh for the driver of a car whose other occupants confronted a man who was physically abusing the other of one of the defendants in this case. Joshua stayed in the car and was not part of the confrontation, while the intended victim escaped unharmed. Protesters gathered outside of the Hall of Justice at 10:30 on Saturday morning.

Joshua's family writes, "We are pleading to the court for mercy, and asking the community's support to achieve and appropriate sentence for Joshua. The sentencing hearing is scheduled for March 20th." Joshua, who is 24 years old, was two weeks away from completing his first semester in the fire fighter academy at the time of his arrest. Prior to this incident, he had not one field identification card in the records of the SJPD to label him a gang member, no history of violence, nor a criminal record. Joshua's mother has reported that the DA's Office refers to him as a hardened gang member and even a gang leader. Because of the nature of the charges, he will likely be sent to a level 4 prison where the "worst" of the offenders are sent. She said, "There is no doubt that Joshua must pay for his absolute lack of judgment, but a life sentence in a level 4 prison is far too harsh for a young man with promise, far too harsh for young man with no criminal record, far too harsh for a young man who has no history of criminal violence. I ask that the courts have mercy on my son and that a sentence be imposed that is just, fair and moral and that the public see the atrocity that is occurring in this situation."

On February 7th, more than 100 UNITE HERE Local 19 service sector employees and community activists protested across the street from Google Inc. headquarters in Mountain View to support workers' rights. The rally was held adjacent to the site of Google's future four-star hotel and conference center. Despite repeated requests, Google has refused to address concerns about whether future hotel workers will be able to freely choose to join a union.

Speakers at the rally included hotel workers concerned about the impact of a non-union hotel on service workers in the area. Community members voiced concerns that public land receiving public resources should reflect community values, such as the right to a living wage, as Google enters the final stage of negotiations with the City of Mountain View. Read More and Watch a Video | Photos: 1 | 2

On January 1, 2008, activists slated, sang, and demonstrated at the downtown San Jose Ice Rink where Jeppesen Dataplan displays a corporate banner. The company handles the logistics for the CIA’s torture flights and continues to be a sponsor of the city's ice rink, despite the fact that the Santa Clara County Board of Supervisors recently went on record as supporting the Torture Outsourcing Prevention Act and mentioning Jeppesen by name as implicated in the outsourcing of torture.

Photos | Torture is Sin: My Speech in Front of Jeppesen | Protests Continue at San Jose Company Linked to "Torture Taxi" Flights

In December 2007, the ACLU filed legal papers opposing the CIA’s attempt to throw out a lawsuit against Boeing subsidiary Jeppesen Dataplan, Inc. for its participation in the CIA’s "extraordinary rendition" program. The ACLU charged that the U.S. government is improperly invoking the "state secrets" privilege to avoid judicial scrutiny of this unlawful policy.

Previous Indybay Coverage of Jeppesen Protests

Hundreds of workers, clergy, and community members took part in a rally Thursday, October 4, in San Jose. The rally, which was held in front of Adobe Systems, was organized by UNITE HERE! and SEIU and called on Silicon Valley technology companies to take responsibility for the conditions faced by cafeteria workers, janitors, and security workers on their corporate campuses.

These workers service the corporate campuses of many of the most successful high-tech and biotech companies in the area, including Applied Materials, Genentech, Electronic Arts, Sun, Adobe, and Broadcom. Technology companies are renowned for being great places to work, but many of these companies' service workers actually work for big contractors like Aramark and Guckenheimer.

Rally organizers called on Silicon Valley companies to adopt a code of conduct to hold contractors accountable and to raise standards for workers and the community. Photos | Service Workers Rising

Taser survivors, civil and human rights advocates, and cultural performers came together on Tuesday, September 11th to kick off a campaign to ban tasers in San Jose. People gathered that day at 5:00pm outside of the District Attorney's Office at 70 West Hedding St. From there, participants marched to the San Jose Police Department. A final rally was held at City Hall, 200 E. Santa Clara St., at 6:30 pm. Photos | PDF

Since 2004, when San Jose equipped all of its police officers with tasers, 5 people have died as a result of police use of tasers in that city. In the US, at least 268 pepole have died since 2001 after they were tased. Steve Salinas was tased to death by SJPD on May 25th, 2007. The Custodio family was tased and beaten on February 5th, 2007. Student Stephen Johnson was tased and beaten on March 10th, 2006.

Silicon Valley DeBug | Related: Taser Trouble in Palo Alto

The San Jose City Council will hold a public hearing on Monday, August 13th, at the San Jose City Council Chambers, to discuss the future of Coyote Valley. Coyote Valley is one of the last remaining open spaces of its size in Santa Clara County, and is reportedly home to many endangered animals and plants. Developers are planning to build housing for 80,000 residents in Coyote Valley, and these plans raise many concerns for the San Jose community. People who are opposed to the development plans will gather on Monday, August 13th at 5pm in front of City Hall, which is located at 200 East Santa Clara Street, and then they will voice their concerns at 5:30pm at the Coyote Valley Task Force meeting in rooms W118-120. PDF and Announcement

The Coyote Valley is a rural area that separates the two Silicon Valley cities of San Jose and Morgan Hill. Much of the valley lies within the city limits of San Jose. The land in Coyote Valley is largely rural, with a variety of agricultural and open space uses. The valley is surrounded by the Diablo Mountain Range on the east, and the foothills of the Coastal Range on the west. Coyote Creek runs along the east side of the valley, and oak grassland dominates the landscape.

San Jose's "Coyote Valley Specific Plan" | Save Coyote Valley website | SCV History | SCV Links | Santa Clara Valley Audubon Society's Position Paper | Greenbelt Alliance's Southbay Page

Young and old gathered in solidarity to support immigrant rights in Campbell, California, a city bordering San Jose, on July 14. The Raging Grannies have put out a call for people to join them at the corner of Bascom and Hamilton in Campbell on the second Saturday of each month from noon to 2pm for a rally to challenge the presence of Minutemen. Read More and View Photos

see also: Wall Street Journal on Minutemen Expansion (Raging Grannies Comment)

previous coverage: Golden Gate Minutemen Confronted in Campbell

On Monday, July 23rd, Cindy Sheehan's deadline for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to introduce articles of impeachment against George Bush and Dick Cheney ran out, as her caravan reached Arlington Cemetery. Hundreds of supporters gathered there and marched on Capitol Hill, ending in a siege of Rep. John Conyers' office and the arrests of Cindy Sheehan and Ray McGovern, among others.

Sheehan Brigade Marches From Arlington Cemetery, Besieges Rep. Conyers' Office | Conyers Calls Cops On Sheehan, Arrests 48 | Swanson: The Conyers Legacy | July 13th Message from Cindy Sheehan | DC Sit In for Impeachment at John Conyers office

In solidarity with the arrests in Washington DC, several folks gathered in Campbell, CA in the office of Mike Honda. They spoke with Mari Maben, Honda's District Chief of Staff, and asked her to convey their demand that Bush/Cheney be impeached to Honda. Photos
A similar action happened later in the day at the office of Zoe Lofgren on North First St. in San Jose, CA.

Letter from Feinstein on Impeachment | Mainstream Media Silent While Calls for Impeachment Grow

Faced with imminent layoffs and management's attempts to eliminate unions, workers from the Northern California Media Workers Union held a picket and press conference in front of the offices of the San Jose Mercury News on Tuesday, June 26th.

Gloria La Riva, Typographical Sector president of the Media Workers Union Local 39521, which represents some of the affected workers, said the layoffs "would create extreme hardship for employees of the Mercury News."

The company has announced that it will lay off all composing room workers on July 1, the day after their contract expires. In all, nearly 30 employees in the advertising and production departments will be affected.

Editorial workers, who are members of the San Jose Newspaper Guild, are also facing layoffs of up to a quarter of their workforce by merging departments among newspapers owned by the parent company, MediaNews Group. When their current two-year contract was signed, editorial workers were told that there would be no more layoffs. Now, according to La Riva, MediaNews Group refuses to negotiate with the Newspaper Guild.

When workers started their pickets in protest, the company threatened to eliminate their severance pay unless they gave up their protests. According to La Riva, many who had worked for the San Jose Mercury News for twenty years or more were contractually entitled to up to 12 weeks of severance pay. "Now that is threatened," she said.

Photos | List of Santa Cruz Sentinel Layoffs | MediaWorkers.org

On June 9th, 2007, Silicon Valley Impeachment Coalition held an impeach "spell-in" where people laid down in San Jose City Hall Plaza to spell IMPEACH with their bodies.

The Impeach "Spell-In," which was organized by the Silicon Valley Impeachment Coalition, included participants from South Bay Mobilization for Peace and Justice, the San Jose Peace Center, the Green Party of Silicon Valley, Code Pink, and many other organizations.

Merriam Kathaleen, one of the organizers, explained, "We, all of us, are involved in the peace movement and we have come together to work specifically for impeachment because we believe that the next war can only be stopped by the impeachment and trial of those that brought us this one."

Photos | Community Currency

In late May, Santa Clara County District Attorney Dolores Carr announced that her office would not be filing any charges in the De Anza gang-rape case, in which an underage, unconscious young woman was assaulted by a group of De Anza College baseball players. At a press conference on Thursday, May 31st, community members gathered outside the DA's office in San Jose to demand justice for the survivor of this attack, who still wants to press charges against the offenders. Within a week's time, Carr said that community response and protest prompted her decision to submit the case to the state Attorney General's office for review. No timeline has been given for the review process, and several possibilities are left open: including that Jerry Brown's office will agree with Carr and leave the case closed with no charges.

Organizations such as California National Organization for Women (CA NOW), Stop Family Violence, and the National Coalition Against Violent Athletes organized the protest and press conference in response to the apparent closure of the case, in which a 17-year-old girl was gang raped at a party thrown by members of the De Anza College baseball team.

Katherine Redmond, founder and president of the National Coalition Against Violent Athletes, spoke about the local and the national outrage at the failure to investigate and prosecute this case. Redmond demands transparency in the investigation: since the DA's reasoning in refusing to bring charges is the lack of evidence, she wonders why the eyewitnesses to the crime (who were sober at the party) were not called to the grand jury to give their testimony. Redmond also discussed the public response to this kind of case and the rape culture that refuses to deal with the truth about rape. She said, "Rape is about the violent and degrading theft of a person's bodily integrity and personal autonomy."

Photos and Audio | Stop Family Violence | California National Organization for Women | National Coalition Against Violent Athletes | Santa Clara County District Attorney's website